Published: January 09, 2009 12:40 am         

Essex, Hickory Creek earn high ratings

One of the country’s most outstanding nursing homes is in Lebanon.

Essex Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 301 W. Essex St., received the maximum rating in a 5-star system announced recently by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

There are about 16,000 nursing homes in the U.S.; only 12 percent received a 5-star ranking, the CMMS said.

Health inspections, staffing and quality measures determined the scores.

Essex had a 5 in quality measures, a 4 in staffing and a 3 in health inspections.

“The team here has done a good job,” said Essex administrator Brian Lessley. He's been at Essex since December, succeeding David Spolyar.

Essex now has 32 residents; the facility has 37 beds, Lessley said.

Having fewer beds gives Essex an edge, Lessley said.

“It just makes it easier to keep on top of things and make sure people are getting care,” he said.

But the ratings can be deceptive, Lessley said, because of the time lag between scoring and reporting.

“Sometimes it can be an unfair judgment of the present,” he said. “Although valuable, they are a snapshot in time; people should take that into consideration.”

Hickory Creek at Lebanon, 1585 Perry-Worth Road, had a 4-star overall ranking. While it also rated 5 stars in quality, with 4 stars in health inspections, it had one star in staffing.

Nursing home industry organizations have complained the CMMS staff ranking method is flawed, the Associated Press reported.

Hickory Creek was one of eight Indiana nursing homes owned by not-for-profit companies which received one-star staff ratings, Jim Leich president and CEO of the Indiana Association of Homes for the Aged told the AP. The scoring system penalizes nursing homes that have residents with less intensive needs, he said.

“I think that there are some people who are questioning the whole system,” said Raelene Wing, RN, the Hickory Creek administrator.

“Overall,” Wing said, “we have done an excellent job with our survey process and taking care of our residents.”

Persons looking for a nursing home for relatives should consider multiple factors, Lessley and Wing said. The Medicare survey is one of many tools in that process, Wing said.

“I think it’s important to refer to their attending physician and to do a little homework when it comes to looking for the right place for their loved one,” Wing said.

The Indiana State Department of Health (www.in.gov/isdh) has information on long term care and nursing homes, Wing said.

A basic requirement in choosing a nursing home is to go there, Lessley said.

“There is no substitute for going into the facility and touring it,” he said.

The a.m. shift is best. “I always tell people come in the morning, to see how people look at breakfast,” Lessley said.

“If something doesn’t get done on that shift, it’s just going to keep getting put off,” he said.

     

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